I see Sellers being the starting H-back at the begining of the season and by mid-season I think that Sellers will be spliting time with Cooley, as long as he develops for us. Sellers was a good player for us the first time he was on the team, and I think that he will be just as good for us this time too. Just a question, when Sellers was here under Norv, was he a TE then to? I thought that he lined up in the back field alot, thats why I was under the impreson that he was a full back.

So is the consensus here that Leonard Stephens is out of the picture and not even worth debating? I think Koz and Ware could be gone. I suppose Ware could go on the practice squad. I think the big question mark is really Royal. I think Rasby, Baxter and Sellers are locks. And like curmudgeon said, you can't really cut Cooley. And for a 3rd round pick he probably can't go on the practice squad either.

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Word is they will have 4 active for game days where most teams have 2 and at most three. I'd guess they end up cutting 2 and keeping one for the practice squad/inactive lists. I think it is a total crapshoot who makes it since none of them are making big bucks. Cooley is a definite. There is no way they'd draft a guy in the 3rd and cut him unless he ends up being terrible. I have enough confidence in there talent evaluating to think he is probably their best receiving tight end already since the others are mostly the blocking type except Sellers.

I see Sellers being the starting H-back at the begining of the season and by mid-season I think that Sellers will be spliting time with Cooley, as long as he develops for us. Sellers was a good player for us the first time he was on the team, and I think that he will be just as good for us this time too. Just a question, when Sellers was here under Norv, was he a TE then to? I thought that he lined up in the back field alot, thats why I was under the impreson that he was a full back.

Sellers was indeed a fullback, but Turner used him in an H-back role as well. Sellers' size (6-3, 260) and mobility makes him an ideal fit for the 'tweener role of H-back.

Stephens was just put on IR by Frankfurt. He hadn't played the past couple of weeks. He has an abdominal strain I think. His stats for the season were 2 catches for 22 yards. But he might have also been blocking for Skip Hicks, who has had a pretty good NFL Europe season.

Interestingly enough, this Sunday the Frankfurt Galaxy take on the Berlin Thunder just six days before they meet again for World Bowl XII...I can't wait to see the commercials during the World Bowl. LOL

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If you check out the roster at http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/roster?team=was you will see that there is 7 TE's and 7 RB's. Mike Sellers is listed as a RB. I know it doesn't matter what you call him. If we are going to have 4 TE's activated on game days then the questions that I have is how many RB's are we going to have on game days? Who will they be? And who is going to get cut?

I think they'll keep at least 5 TEs-- Rasby, Cooley, Baxter, Sellers and Kozlowski-- with Ware or Royal as either a 6th TE, or on the practice squad... most likely the practice squad. The reason I say that, is Gibbs needs at least 3 TEs that he can put on the field at any one time. There are bound to be injuries, and he will also want to be able to rotate guys in and out frequently to keep them fresh. In that scenario, he'd need a minimum of 5 TEs, which he would probably keep on the active roster. The 6th guy he could keep on the practice squad, and activate him if injuries crop up.

I'm sticking by my original post, with the slight modification that 5 TEs will make the 53-man roster, and 1 will go to the practice squad (Ware or Royal). Of the 5 who make the 53-man roster, 1 of them will be inactive on game day, which would give you the 4 active TEs that Nunyo referred to.

That gives you a total of 6 guys who will remain Redskins in some capacity, with Royal, Ware and Stephens "battling" for the practice squad spot. Aside from Cooley, those three are the only ones eligible for practice squad designations.

I think Baxter and Koz's veteran experience gives them a giant leg up on Royal, Ware and Stephens. Gibbs is going to make the best use of his roster spots, and if you have 2 TEs who are essentially equal, but one has a ton of experience and one has very little, Gibbs will take the vet every time, and put the youngster on the practice squad.

Again, to keep SC happy, I must add the caveat that I can't read minds, nor am I a close personal associate of Joe Gibbs, Joe Bugel, Vinny Cerrato or Dan Snyder...

8588: I would think they will keep 4 RB's also. The 4 would be Portis, Betts, Rock, and Morton. At least it would appear that way at this time. They will probably keep 5 WR's since they use 3 in many formations. Typically, they would keep 8 OL's and 2 QB's (the 3rd string QB suits up, but does not count). That is 23 for the offense, and only leaves 20 for defense (don't forget the K & P each use up a slot). With the may varied formations Williams likes, he will need the 20.

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Hogskin: I agree on the RB's that will be kept, and not to be anal but the D would have 30, as long as the roster still contains 53 players. If take out the K and P then D is down to 28. Which like you said Williams will need that for his formations that he runs. It will be interesting on how things will work out.

JoeCrisp: Will you be able to attend the mini-camp this week-end? I read that Gibbs will only let media in for the first few minutes of practices.

JoeCrisp: Will you be able to attend the mini-camp this week-end? I read that Gibbs will only let media in for the first few minutes of practices.

I've been debating as to whether I should even bother making the trip up to Redskins Park this weekend. Gibbs started this closed practice thing during the last day of the last minicamp, where he only let us watch the first 30 minutes-- which, like Joe White said, basically limits us to watching the players stretch and run through some positional drills. That doesn't give us much to write about, other than mundane observations like, "Sean Taylor's shorts are still very baggy."

That means if I decided to make the 2.5 hour trip there this weekend, it would be primarily for the pre- and post-practice press conferences, and the random interviews of players after practice. I don't know about you guys, but with gas prices being what they are, and the cicadas still buzzing around waiting to get splattered all over my truck, I don't really think it's worth it. While I enjoy getting to ask the players and coaches a few questions, I think the observations I can make during practice are much more valuable. Obviously, Joe Gibbs feels the same way, and that's why he wants to limit the media to basically reporting fluff.

I can certainly understand Coach Gibbs' concern, but obviously, it's very disappointing for all of the reporters who cover the team. Hopefully, it will all be worth it in the end, and this offseason secrecy will allow Gibbs and Williams to take the league by storm come September.

Hogskin: I agree on the RB's that will be kept, and not to be anal but the D would have 30, as long as the roster still contains 53 players. If take out the K and P then D is down to 28. Which like you said Williams will need that for his formations that he runs. It will be interesting on how things will work out.

8588: I will get anal, too LOL. You need to re-read your previous post. This discussion (and specifically YOUR post and my response to it) was about who were the players that were going to be on the ACTIVE roster. The full roster is 53, the active gameday roster is 45 plus a 3rd string QB (if you have one), which means there are 7 (or 8 with only 2 QB's) inactives. We were discussing how many TE's would be active, and I was suggesting the typical makeup of an active roster to demonstrate the numbers issue. You had asked how many game day RB's they would have and who they would be. So, in my example the defense would have 20 slots, not 28.

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National Fantasy Sports Leagues, Inc.
Home of "The BEST Game In Town" since 1990